Latest KFF Health News Stories
The 181 million taxpayers with employer-sponsored coverage could miss out on the benefits of 2020 hopeful Sen. Bernie Sanders’ plan. And even those receiving Medicaid could pay more, health policy analysts tell Bloomberg. Meanwhile, Sanders emerged out of the debates as the front-runner in terms of who Americans see as the strongest candidate on health care.
“The commonwealth has a compelling interest in taking limited and temporary steps to control an outbreak of a vaccine-preventable disease,” the Kentucky Court of Appeals said in its ruling.
Democratic Attorneys General Sue Government Over Claims EPA Failed To Effectively Regulate Asbestos
EPA released a rule restricting but not banning asbestos. “We won’t pull any punches,” California Attorney General Xavier Becerra said. “There’s too much at stake to let the EPA ignore the danger that deadly asbestos poses to our communities.”
On Monday, 104 brand-name and generic drug prices rose by a 13.1% on average, compared to a 7.8% average increase for 318 products a year earlier. “It’s hard to imagine what [drugmakers] are thinking,” said one drug industry analyst. “Keeping your head down would seem to be a much better strategy.”
Air Ambulance Rates Are Soaring But State Regulators Are Handcuffed By A Decades-Old Rule
The Airline Deregulation Act of 1978 prohibits states from regulating routes or rates, so state regulators can do nothing but look on as prices climb to a median of $39,000. However, the increase could bolster congressional efforts to address balance billing.
The $4.6 billion humanitarian aid package had a long journey through Congress ending on President Donald Trump’s desk Monday. It will provide funding to try to help alleviate some of the strain at the border. Meanwhile, the president poked at California’s recent decision to expand health care to certain residents regardless of immigration status.
ProPublica received an inside look at some postings on a secret Facebook group for 9,500 former and current Border Patrol agents. The postings reflect what “seems to be a pervasive culture of cruelty aimed at immigrants within CBP. This isn’t just a few rogue agents or ‘bad apples,'” said Daniel Martinez, a sociologist at the University of Arizona in Tucson who studies the border. Customs and Border Protection said the inspector general of the Department of Homeland Security would conduct an independent investigation.
Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.), who was one of the lawmakers visiting two Texas border facilities, said that one of the detainees had been told to drink water out of the toilet. “We’re talking systemic cruelty [with] a dehumanizing culture that treats them like animals,” she tweeted after the visit.
Today’s early morning highlights from the major news organizations.
State Broadens Investigation Of Doctors For Issuing Questionable Vaccination Exemptions
The Medical Board of California is investigating at least four doctors for issuing questionable vaccine exemptions for numerous children. The investigations come amid the nation’s worst measles outbreak in more than a quarter-century.
Florida Is The Latest Republican-Led State To Adopt Clean Needle Exchanges
Florida has struggled for years with opioid overdoses — and the highest rate of HIV infection in the U.S. Lawmakers now hope needle exchanges and a “harm reduction” approach could help save lives.
Want Ammo? Be Prepared For A Background Check
A new law took effect Monday that requires anyone buying ammunition in California to undergo a background check at the time of each purchase. Public health leaders hope this, and other provisions of Proposition 63, will help reduce the rate of gun violence.
Democratic Debate Brings ‘Medicare For All’ Divide Into Focus
Reverberations from the Democratic presidential debate last week continue. One of the key issues that the candidates discussed was health care, and they had some differences in their plans, especially their views of a “Medicare for All” policy. Julie Rovner, the chief Washington correspondent for Kaiser Health News, joined NPR’s Sarah McCammon on “Weekend Edition […]
Opinion writers weigh in on these health care topics and others.
Fecal Parasite That Can Be Transmitted Via Swimming Pools On The Rise, CDC Warns
The parasite is a problem in pools because an infected swimmer can excrete the parasite at several orders of magnitude higher than the amount necessary to cause infection, officials warn. In other public health news: strokes, “shock therapy,” smiling, children’s care, hand dryers and hearing loss, infertility, body shape, and more.
Fair officials closed access to nearly 3,000 animals on Saturday. Dr. Robert Glatter, an emergency physician, said the most common form of E. coli transmission is when young people come in contact with animal feces. The importance of handwashing is ”paramount,” he said.
Media outlets report on news from Utah, Alaska, Michigan, Massachusetts, North Carolina, New Hampshire, Kansas, Louisiana, California, Colorado and Minnesota.
Twenty-three patients at San Francisco’s Laguna Honda Hospital and Rehabilitation Center who lived in two wards at the public hospital that primarily serves dementia patients were subjected to alleged physical and verbal abuse between 2016 and 2019. Health officials said Friday that the six alleged abusers took photos and videos of themselves engaging in the abuse — including having sexualized conversations with patients. The alleged abusers exchanged those photos and videos over text messages. News on hospitals comes out of Minnesota, Oregon, Florida and Kansas, as well.
Payment Negotiations Over Iowa’s Medicaid Program Grind Into Start Of Fiscal Year
The negotiations revolve around how much Iowa will pay national insurance companies to run its Medicaid program. Officials decline to estimate how much more money the state will have to spend on the program, but said any increase would include money for initiatives legislators approved, such as higher reimbursement rates for nursing homes that care for Iowa Medicaid members. News on Medicaid comes out of Florida, Kansas and Illinois, as well.
High-Profile Criminal Trial For Former Theranos CEO Elizabeth Holmes Set For Next Summer
Elizabeth Holmes and her former No. 2 Sunny Balwani are accused of defrauding investors, patients, and doctors in a blood-testing scandal that brought down health care’s richest venture-backed startup and have become an industry parable for the dangers of medical hype and hubris. Jury selection is scheduled to begin in July 2020 and the trial is expected to last about three months.